Eye of the Gator

(1995)(The second book in the Tony Lowell Mystery series)A novel by E C Ayres

After a ten year hiatus, non-conforming private investigator Tony Lowell is back, this time to tell his own story. As the original combination war-veteran peacenik and laid back hipster, Tony Lowell is the original environmental activist detective. He refuses to carry a gun. But that doesn't mean he won't venture where others fear to go. The sun was already low over Manatee Bay. The cellophane surface of the water glittered with slashes of pink and orange and purple, an artist's dream, reflected off the routine afternoon clouds out over the Gulf. It hadn't rained in nearly a month, despite the constant presence of moisture, but then that wasn't uncommon in the Florida spring. "A mystery with a conscience... Eye of the Gator is a must read for anyone looking for a brainy mystery." St. Petersburg Times "Retired photographer, beach bum, and sometime sleuth Tony Lowell is a roguish fortysomething hippie whose only nod to the establishment is his feisty friendship with police detective Lena Bedrosian...Lowell is a wacky but likeable guy who is sort of Travis McGee, Don Quixote, and Willie Nelson rolled into one--Booklist on The Tony Lowell Mysteries. "Lowell defies cliche. ..just when you think he's yet another 40-something investigator Ayres surprises you." Miami Herald on Hour of the Mantee, winner of the St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America Best First Novel award 1992. "This spring three Florida mystery writers weighed in with new books. Two of the state's best, James W. Hall and Randy Wayne White are coming off big successes. E. C. (Gene) Ayres, still working his way up the ladder might, just might, have produced the best book of the three." St. Petersburg Times on Night of the Panther.